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tv   [untitled]    December 24, 2012 7:30am-8:00am PST

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neighborhood. i'm here today because i have personally visited too many families as they grieve the loss of loved ones, largely due to gun violence. i'm here today because of the time that i've spent at general hospital consoling innocent victims of gun violence, some as young as five years old. i'm here because we have to do more and use every legislative and executive power that are available to us to continue to address the causes as well as the impacts of senseless gun violence occurring in our neighborhoods. now, what we know is that many of the shootings that are occurring are increasingly involving young adults under the age of 25 years old. they are often related to disputes over turf and status and they're fueled by the fact that it's easy to obtain -- too easy to obtain and possess military style assault weapons and hollow point ammunition. as you will hear today from dr.
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campbell, thea hollow type ammunition especially [speaker not understood] to victims because the ammunition is designed to expand and shred an individual's internal organs upon impact, making it nearly impossible for a medical professional to repair and save lives. last week i had the pleasure of joining the police department as well as our community partner the omega boys club headed by dr. joe marshall and one of the most successful gun buy back programs. we collected approximately 2 96 guns off the street, 300 we were able to get guns off of out of hands of folks. not just in the southeast neighborhood, but all across san francisco. and i think we have a collective understanding that there is a growing awareness on the part of san franciscans about the need to do more to address gun violence and to believe -- and i believe that there is a desire for us as elected officials to take greater steps in implementing
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institutional solutions to these issues. * these weapons and this ammunition over here to my right don't belong in the hands of san francisco and online suppliers, online suppliers have an obligation to disclose to law enforcement officers information about residents buying large amounts of this lethal ammunition. i just want to say thank you for being here. i look forward to introducing this legislation. as soon as we hit the ground running in january. i appreciate your support, mr. mayor, and i look forward to continuing to working together. thank you. * >> thank you, supervisor. chief has been a great partner in not only law enforcement, with ideas of what else we could do. * chief sur i'm going to ask the chief to come up and talk about why we need to ban this ammunition, what it takes to create a system where we have reporting
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of individuals or entities that might want to buy 500 rounds of ammunition, and why it's important that that get reported. in addition to the very successful gun buy back that supervisor cohen had mentioned, there's also other things that we are doing as well. i have instructed chief sur to make sure we introduce to the new cadets in the police academy as well as retrain every officer in our police department on school safety tactics in light of the sandy hook elementary school disaster. and he's going to do that. it's already begun. the curriculum is being designed for that. that's as important, making sure that we work in concert with our school district to make sure every campus is safe. that means school safety tactics have always been around, gets a refreshed training by everyone. chief suhr. >> thank you, mr. mayor. i want to start off by reassuring everybody that what
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you saw play out on television, however unimaginable it was, that the heroism and the courage of the teachers at that school and the actions of the officers to respond directly in was a product of training after the columbine incident in colorado. across this country, all law enforcement agencies have been trained not to wait when there is an active shooter, but to go in immediately. and you actually saw that play out on television. and i think that for them doing that coupled with the fact that the teachers did as they were trained, and secured in place versus evacuating those kids into the hallways, had what is a horrific tragedy as far as it went, being far less than it might have been as a result of that training. as the mayor said here in san francisco, we have also trained to that standard. and as we're going through a high right now where we'll pick up a thousand police officers over the next six years, they, too, will be trained to that
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standard. * hire we've developed a crisis management handbook that's online and the link has been sent to every school in san francisco so that they can refresh their training on secure in place. there is a time to evacuate and then there's a time to stay put, wait as it was said in the media, to wait for the good guys. so, they did that in sandy hook and it saved lives. we will do that exact same thing should that event happen at any point in san francisco, and we're going to train so that that's the case for as long into the future as we can see to keep our kids safe. i, like supervisor cohen, want to applaud the mayor's leadership on this, to identify the most lethal ammunition, and to have allow the citizens to allow the police department to maintain the database. being the first city in the country to make that ammunition illegal as you will hear later, dr. campbell from probably the best trauma ward in the country will tell you what that ammunition does to people when
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they are hit by it. and then, again, to ask for a reporting on people that purchase as much or more as 500 rounds of ammunition so we cannot only track those people that are buying ammunition, but frequency of purchase as you can stockpile that ammunition. it is not going to be the -- any sort of suspension of the constitution. this is just smart, thoughtful community coming together with law enforcement so we know what people are doing and a simple question can be asked and if it's for target practice, that's fine as long as it's not the most lethal ammunition. the leadership in this country, you know, we've been divided for a while over small ideas and now we're coming together unfortunately after this tragedy over a big idea. and that's gun control. can't tell you how much the major city police chiefs of this country support the mayor.
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senator feinstein, congress, state senators, and mayors like mayor lee that we're fortunate to have, on gun control. senator feinstein will re-submit the assault weapons ban which bans 100 specific assault rifles, including the weapon used in sandy hook and high-capacity magazines of 10 rounds or more. there's other things that we as major city chiefs would like to see happen, such as the banning of internet ammo sales. we'd like to see in-person transactions. the record of sales and licensing of ammo vendors, and other things i can talk to you about off line. we are doing everything we can to make san francisco a safer place and reduce violent crime. the mayor spoke of ipo, which he introduced at the very beginning of august. and for the first august in memory and maybe even on record, we suffered zero homicides in that month.
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unfortunately one homicide in the city is too many. we've had 67 this year to date, which is up over the last couple years, record low. still the best we've had in 10 years absent those record lows. gun violence is down 4% in san francisco. largely because of community partnership. things like our gun tip line which i'll give you, 575-4444 and things like the gun buy back program. if you don't think that one of these guns or any of the other 2 96 * guns that were recovered here of the 300 guns that chief howard jordan and youth uprising were able to get over there weren't going to fall into the hands of somebody that might use them, you're betting against the odds. the shooter in newtown, connecticut, got those guns from his home, legally purchased firearms. we took 2 96 guns off the street here thankful to dr. joe
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marshall and omega boys club. over 150 handguns, almost 150 rifles and shotguns, these are not what people keep saying aren't going to make a difference. this is absolutely making a difference. and i would say to the nra or anybody that says, hey, this isn't the problem, if it's not the problem, it will make a difference, it should make a difference banning them. let's err on the side of caution, keep the kids safe. thank you. >> let me also echo again my appreciation for commissioner dr. joe marshall because omega boys club has been a great partner. they are part of our effort to organize commutes, to intervene as early as we can, and i totally agree with the chief that these particular guns, if you look at them up front and close, you'll see they really shouldn't be in anybody's homes. they're designed to kill folks.
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many of them military style. i think to bring home the real story here is dr. andrei campbell of our san francisco general hospital, and also on staff at ucsf. he is at the forefront of world class trauma center that we have. and if you go day to day, and certainly with the 67 homicides that we have with the numbers of bodies that were showing up and people have shown up, many of which he saved, many of which he couldn't save that were victims of bullets and violence and gun violence in our city, you know that that's another good reason as to why we need to do as much prevention as we can. dr. campbell. >> good afternoon, mayor lee, supervisor cohen, chief suhr, members of the press. my name is dr. andrei campbell and i've worked at san francisco general hospital for
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the past 19 years as a trauma surgeon. before i came to san francisco i worked in new york. i have 24 years of experience of caring for victims in two major cities in our great country. this week all of us have watched with horror the events in newtown, connecticut, with great sadness as we learned the devastation that one person brought on that quiet community. i've seen the devastation that guns have visited on victims of crime. my heart goes out to all the victims and their families as they struggle to understand what has happened over the last week. san francisco general hospital is the only trauma center in the city and county of san francisco and in the u.s. it is, in fact, i think, the best trauma center in the united states. we stand ready 24/7 to care for any injured patient in the city and county of san francisco. we also at general hospital are caring for uninsured and underinsured people who come in after injured. we also represent -- i also represent thousands of
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dedicated physicians, surgeons, nurses, administration and therapists who care for the hundreds of thousands of patients who come to our hospital. i have dedicated my life to providing care for injured patients in our community. it is truly a team effort to provide care for the victims of vie lertctionv crime. we rely heavily on our many trained professionals 20 help us do our work each day. after persons injured due to shooting after the scene, people go there, public firefighters and servants. the trauma surgeons, emergency physicians anesthesiologists, orthopedic surgeons, nurses, therapists and many, many others who come to help us work on the patient. and we do this for every single person who is injured. we bring all the resources there. we can to make sure we can save as many people as we can each day. the reality and sadness is we may save many, but we can't save everyone. over the years i have seen massive increase in the fire power witnesses before you
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today. these guns are more powerful and destruction are profound. from ak-47s, other assault-style weapons, hand gun, extended clips, hollow point bullets, black talon weapons, bullets and other things like that, i've seen them and the work that -- the problems they cause each day. the larger weapons create absolute devastation in the victims. when they strike a victim, it's like a bomb going off. i struggle with all the dedicated team members to save their lives as it's real a a battle against life and death. sometimes they have overwhelming mortal wounds and i cannot save them. we save a lot, but we can't save everyone. they have massive chest, abdominal, leg, head wounds that become -- that are the consequences of these large weapons in froth of you. -- front of you. they are the victims, but their families that are also injured when or have problems after the
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shooting. when a victim dies it leaves a hole in the family. they can't ever forget the devastated mothers, father's, sisters, brothers, that are struggling with loss. the way of a mother is unique sound as she screams, my baby is dead, my baby is dead. * wail it is a terrible sound, i wish i would have to never hear it again. part of the process of making sure these lethal weapons are off the street. if we save the patient, they have to deal with many operations, icu care, post tau matt he -- posttraumatic stress. head injuries, disfiguring operations and long-term care and many, many other serious problems. we cannot forget the physical scars, but there's also emotional scars after they are injured. at san francisco general hospital a number of gunshot wounds has declined in recent years. in 2007 we cared for 381
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shooting victims in our emergency department. 2011, the last year we have data on, that number is now 182 shooting victims. while this is a substantial drop, i submit to you that one is too many. these numbers represent the patients who are transported to the hospital, not the victims who died at the scene or do not come in for care. many people are killed from homicides, but suicide taking one's life with weapons is much more common in the united states. it is a silent killer since more than twice as many people die of suicide than homicide historically in the united states. there is an hep dim i can of violent crime committed with guns and is a serious public health problem that we must confront head on. * it is incidents like this past week bring these terrible crimes out in the public, but the reality is people are killed every day in this country with weapons that permanently change the lives of the families that they are
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with. in conclusion, i would like to thank the mayor for inviting me out to stand with supervisor cohen, police chief sur, to support sensible gun control. the trauma center stands ready to care for victims. any initiative that can reduce guns in my opinion will make the streets and the cities and counties -- cities like san francisco a much safer place to live. i thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you, doctor. today we're focused on ammunition and immediate interruption in the behavior that law enforcement advises us and sees every day that leads to more violence. in the weeks and months to come, the board and the mayor's office will be introducing both more ideas and legislation and resolutions to support federal and state efforts in the same direction.
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at the same time, we'll also be introducing through our budget support for an ongoing organizing in our community to support nonlaw enforcement efforts to reduce violence, whether it's education, social services, housing, none of that escapes us as to their link in efforts to reduce violence in our society. with that i want to thank everybody for coming today. and i would ask everyone in san francisco, if not the whole region and the state, to please join us in a national moment of silence that will occur tomorrow morning east coast time, it will be 9:30 a.m., and here in san francisco it will be 6:30 a.m. for a national moment of silence to remember all the victims in sandy hook. of course, at the same time, remember all the victims at our own locally it victims of gun violence. and before and after this moment of silence we will be
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active doing the things we need to do to reduce violence in our city. thank you. . >> i'd like to call roll please. (roll call) also with us this evening we have chief of police
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gregory piecer and you have a quorum. >> ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the wednesday, december 19, 2012 police commission meeting. we have a light agenda at the front end but a lot of disciplinary and personnel matter we'll be dealing with in closed item. without further ado, please call line item 1, the consent calendar. >> also we have miss franko. >> i spoke with miss hicks and she asked that the item on the agenda be taken off. >> item 1, request of officer mike mitchell to accept gifts of a ball cap and hooded sweat dts shirt from the san francisco spc for his assistance with the recovery of a stolen dog. >> members, you have the affidavit of officer mitchell. he helped the spca recover a
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stolen dog. any public comment? >> move to grant the request. >> all in favor say aye. >> no. 2, general public comment. the public is now welcome to address the commission regarding items that do not appear on tonight's agenda but that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission. speakers shall address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners, department or occ personnel. under police commission rules of order during public comment neither police or occ personnel nor commissioners are required to respond to questions presented by the public but may provide a brief response. individual commissioners and police and occ personnel should refrain, however, from entering into any debates or discussion with speakers during public comment. please limit your comments to 3 minutes. >> good evening, welcome back. >> hi, jackie brison here and i'm happy to be here. i did my
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nomo rain dance, i'm part xhapb khee and i had to do my rain dance in order to get nomo rain but it only holds until friday. >> i am here once again to bear glad tidings apparently you really miss me and needed some good tidings, so here i am. first thing i wanted to let you know is that i did battle with pg&e over a missing, as in the light wasn't on, it was out, and i did battle with pg&e and i won. so the offensive light shall be replaced tomorrow, that's in front of 54 dore street and it was a battle but i won. police department's worth it. the second item i wanted to
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let you know in regards to light, i have done battle with the folsom dore apartment, 75 dore, no. 6, i had to file not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5 but 6 complainting regarding inadequate lighting and they finally saw the light and the lights were on when i left. no. 3 has to do with the baldwin house hotel. i don't know if you've opened your substation there yet, but be sure and check and make sure that the boiler system for the hotel proper has been inspected. if you were to check with the department of building inspection you will find that it was the early part of 2004, i filed a complaint regarding the boiler system. it turned out there had been a notice of violation which had
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been issued against that hotel which went languishing for, like, 6 years and there was a changing of the guard. well, i found out about it and i let pg&e know that they had a water heater, not a boiler there, i spoke to pg&e, spoke to the little guy there, they refused to let the inspector inspect because there was nothing to inspect. i took them to director's hearing and they were required to put a boiler in place so make sure that, a, there's a boiler and b it's current and i want to give a shoutout to my long lost phone spouse. i miss him. once again, i'm in mourning. he's done a good job. >> thank you, miss brison. any further public comment? please come forward. >> my name is robert davis, i
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live in the bayview, 92124. i am here for 3 things. the first thing is to show you a petition that some of my neighbors and i put together for lieutenant robert oh sullivan to be promoted as the permanent captain at the bayview station. we got a hundred signatures very quickly. >> (inaudible) on that? >> mr. davis and i discussed that that has happened. >> granted. thank you, chief, and thank you, mr. davis. >> the second thing that now captain o sullivan is the permanent captain at the station, we'd like him to stay for a while. i know with paramilitary organizations it's up and out but we think that would be counter productive in this case, he's been there two years, we work very well with him and we'd like him to stay. if that's possible we'd like that to happen.
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the third thing i'd like to mention is some calls for service data that i got from the turk street department of what are they called, you know, the custodian of records. first little packet here is about what we call mendell plaza, that would be between oakdail and palou and the 1300 block and 1400 block of mendell. in 10 months this year there have been over 2600 calls for service to that one block which we think is very high, considering the density of the neighborhood and for comparison in the second set of data here, i have calls for 6th street between market and mission. there were fewer calls, it's 3 times as dense and yes, we have gangs, they don't have gangs they don't have, et cetera, et cetera, but the reason i'm here is to bring
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this to your attention. we'd like some city services that doesn't involve the police. the police are doing a very good job. we have 3 bicycle officers, we have calls, we have people up and down. we like having police. we'd like to have some city services to take care of some of what we call the antisocial behavior in the plaza -- drinking, public urination, public other stuff that people do in the middle of the day. the city already sends somebody out for two hours in the morning from 4:00 to 6:00 or 5:00 to 7 klak to power wash the plaza every day. we're spending a lot of money as taxpayers. we think we can do better. we appreciate the police, they're doing a great job, but what we'd like you to do and the reason i'm here is i'm asking you to make some calls, get other agencies involved, a multi tier, multi level approach, we just need some help. the other thing, just out of
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interest, i got all this from the department of records also. this is about 24th and mission and 16th and mission and the calls for service there are fewer than 20 in a year, which i found very interesting, considering the bad pr for that neighborhood and for those two blocks in general. anyway, thank you. >> thank you very much. and thank you for your petition. any further public comment? come on, sir. >> my name (inaudible) i believe that one of your officer from sunset was very undisciplined to me, very, very. i'd like to citizen complaint but they didn't want to hear this. i'd like the chief of police, nothing can
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help. what can i do? i still very strongly believe this officer dermani was very in his behavior even how he looked at me, everything, was so antisemitic to russian jew was unbelievable. i don't believe i am in united states. and, again, this case was for two months in officer citizen complaint and they did not want to hear this. they did everything not to bring these two officer who was there on the case on the place when it happened and i really don't know what i have to do. thank you. >> thank you. any further
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public comment? >> inspector hallor ran. >> thank you for this opportunity. i stand before you tonight on two issues, first of all to introduce myself or reintroduce myself to some of the commissioners. last month i was swoerp in as vice president of the san francisco police officers association, having served 9 years as the treasurer i'm familiar with the process of the commission and the discipline but secondly and more importantly, i want to announce if you haven't already known, the retirement of vice president kevin martin and the retirement of our paralegal, steve johnson. that most recently happened two weeks ago. we are definitely going to fill the void that steve has left, i hope to fill the void and fill the shoes of kevin martin. we know it's a lot to ask but i can assure